The Dead

"I'm just trying to survive." Lt. Brian Murphy (Freeman) is part of the last evacuation plane out of Africa. The country is in a war where the dead come back as zombies. When the plane crashes he is the lone survivor and now he needs to make it to the airport on his own. When he meets a local sergeant they decide to work together to make it to safety. I will start by saying that I have never really liked zombie movies (except for "Shaun of the Dead"). The "Dawn Of The Dead" and "28 Days" movies never were my thing. This movie however was great. Much like the movie "Let Me In", which I thought was what the world would be like if vampires actually existed, this movie is the most "realistic" zombie movie I have ever seen. If zombies did exist I think it would be like this movie and not the glorified gore that other movies show. For someone who doesn't like movies like this I was very impressed. Overall, one of, if not the, best zombie movie I have ever seen. I recommend this. I give it a B+.

I didn't expect that much from this movie. My first thoughts were: it is not even B-movie, rather C. But from the first minutes I realized that it leaves an impression of..."28 Days Later" and "The Walking Dead". It's kind of long shot, but that's what came to mind. While it is not as detailed and well played as those two, it has it's own new look on the old theme. Decent make-up, good camera work, the interesting contrast between gore images and beautiful "vues d'Afrique" savannah - all together with natural actor's work exceeds the initial shallow (to say the least) expectations. I don't think I will watch it again (well, not any time soon), but certainly I would not mind to see the next chapter. It looks like there is some space left for the Part II. PS: there is no cheap synthetic music (you all know it;)), that usually fills in the "wordless" episodes in some really boring movies. On my opinion, this sort of mindless soundtrack always serves as indicator. Sometimes I wonder if they use that sort of "music" as a warning: "it is going to be boring..." It's absence is a huge plus.

this movie is great. i briefly recall seeing the poster for it a while back but i'd since forgotten about it up until the other day when i took a gamble on watching it and was happy within the first 10 minutes after seeing the style and effects.

like another reviewer stated, the movie is shot on 35mm film, not on digital like modern Hollywood flicks. this gives it a very classic look and feel, reminiscent of the George a Romero film like dawn of the dead in '78 and day in '80.

the zombie effects and makeup as far as i could tell used no CGI whatsoever and the gore, though not too frequent, looks great when it's on screen.

the undead are also nearly always on screen, and combined with their excellent makeup, great camera work and complete lack of unnecessary music, have a very menacing feel as they creep up on the films 2 protagonists.

the films setting is beautiful and a fantastic change from the norm's of busy city streets and urban environments. it is shot in west African locations such as Burkina Faso and Ghana, as well as the Sahara desert. it really is a breath of fresh air in the zombie movie genre.

the story is fairly simple. an American military engineer washes up on the coast of west Africa after his evacuation flight crashes. as the sole survivor he attempts to reach a northern military air field to re-attempt his escape, and runs into a soldier of the African military who is trying to find his son during the chaos.

overall i give this movie an 8 out of 10. and that's only because i wasn't keen on the acting by the American protagonist played by Robert freeman, and a couple small sections of the movie are quite slow.

the film does leave itself open for the possibility of a sequel and i would be more than happy to watch it if it mirrors the quality of this.

I love me a good zombie flick, and I try to support independent cinema whenever I can. But I'll be the first to admit that the words "independent low-budget horror" can send me running for the hills. But after hearing some of the good buzz around this one, I thought I'd give it a shot at a midnight screening last night. I'm really glad I checked it out. The co-director was in attendance for last night's screening, where he spoke of his adoration of the early Romero films, and that influence shows. It's an endless stream of slow-walking, omnipresent zombies. It's the opposite of the hyper-stylized, fast-cut, fast walking zombie movies of recent years. Most of the action takes place during daylight hours in wide open spaces. Africa can be a harsh and brutal place without zombies, so you can imagine the difficulties that the survivors must endure. I thought the pacing was decent, and the acting was very solid. There are some really nice stylized shots in places. I'll remember that striking final scene years from now. I thought the sound design and the minimal score were very effective. Because the survivors are mostly out in the wild, there's this constant chatter of insects throughout. It's like a buzzing fluorescent bulb that always keeps you a little off- kilter. A refreshingly stark entry into the sometimes crowded zombie genre. Highly recommended.

"The Dead" was really quite a surprise. And it is also a zombie movie way out of the ordinary; it is set in Africa, something you don't see every day. But if you have read David Wellington's "Monster" trilogy, then you will love this movie.

Let me say that the African setting was really a nice breath of fresh air in the zombie genre. It worked so well, because it was miles after miles of savanna and badlands. No big skyscrapers here, no high-tech underground facilities, no narrow and winding dark alleys. A couple of villages though, so it was cool.

However, one thing that puzzled me in "The Dead" was the amount of zombies that were shambling about in the savanna. I would have assumed that there wouldn't be that many walking around in the middle of nowhere. Near the villages, yes, but in the middle of the savanna, no! And oddly enough every time the two main characters in the movie stopped somewhere, there were suddenly (and always!) a group of zombies shambling in to attack them. That was so stupid. But I guess it was the simplest way to work in a heap of zombies into the story.

Basically the story revolves around two people only. But it works out well enough, despite the movie moving ahead at a fairly slow speed. But that was not a bad thing, because the movie was far from boring. Just don't expect speed, action and lots of adrenalin, though.

The cast in "The Dead" was nice and they did good jobs with their roles. And the two lead roles were well cast.

One thing that could have improved the movie for me, was if the zombies had glazed over milky eyes instead of those weird white eyes; it just didn't really make them have that classic zombie/dead person look. But hey, it was a minor thing. It is just me that pays attention to the small details.

All in all, "The Dead" was really a great movie and it was really nice to see this type of approach to the zombie genre. So thumbs up for the movie makers. And if you are a zombie aficionado like me, then you definitely want to check out "The Dead".